Psychological Determinants of Patient Satisfaction Following Full-Mouth Rehabilitation
Full-mouth rehabilitation; Patient satisfaction; Psychological determinants; Prosthodontics; Oral health-related quality of life; Patient-reported outcomes
AuthorsAbstractFull-mouth rehabilitation represents a comprehensive prosthodontic intervention aimed at restoring function, esthetics, and oral health in patients with extensive dental impairment. While advances in materials, techniques, and digital technologies have improved clinical predictability and prosthesis longevity, patient satisfaction remains a complex and multifactorial outcome that cannot be explained by technical success alone. Increasing evidence indicates that psychological determinants play a critical role in shaping patient perceptions of treatment outcomes following full-mouth rehabilitation. This narrative review synthesizes contemporary literature to examine the key psychological factors influencing patient satisfaction, including patient expectations, dental anxiety, personality traits, self-esteem, psychological adaptation to prostheses, and the quality of patient–dentist communication. The review further explores the limitations of relying solely on objective clinical parameters and highlights the growing importance of patient-reported outcome measures in capturing subjective experiences related to oral health-related quality of life. Findings from the reviewed literature suggest that unmet expectations, unmanaged anxiety, and poor communication may lead to dissatisfaction despite clinically successful rehabilitations. Conversely, effective expectation management, shared decision-making, and integration of psychological assessment into treatment planning are associated with improved satisfaction, long-term compliance, and perceived treatment value. This review underscores the need for a holistic, biopsychosocial approach to full-mouth rehabilitation that integrates psychological considerations alongside clinical evaluation. Incorporating psychological determinants into routine prosthodontic practice has the potential to enhance patient-centered care, optimize long-term outcomes, and improve overall quality of life for patients undergoing full-mouth rehabilitation.
1. Introduction Full-mouth rehabilitation is one of the most complicated and challenging treatment modalities in modern prosthodontics, which is intended to recover the functionality, esthetics, and occlusal balance of patients with a significant tooth loss, a high rate of tooth wear, or impaired oral health. The development of restorative materials, digital processes, minimally invasive procedures, and implant dentistry have greatly increased the extent and predictability of fullmouth rehabilitation processes. Systematic reviews and long-term clinical trials have shown positive survival and technical outcomes of both tooth-supported and implant-supported full-mouth rehabilitation in case of adherence to the necessary protocols.1–3 Consequently, the modern practice of prosthodontics is more and more focused on the comprehensive rehabilitation plans, which incorporate functional rehabilitation and esthetic and biomechanical aspects. The effectiveness of full-mouth rehabilitation has been evaluated using objective clinical measures like the survival of the prosthesis, complication, marginal integrity, occlusal stability and biological outcomes. Although these indicators are still critical in measuring technical success, an increasing body of evidence indicates that positive clinical outcomes do not always correspond to high patient satisfaction. A number of long-term and observational studies have shown differences between clinician-evaluated success and patient-reported outcomes, which indicate that patients can be dissatisfied with clinically •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ejprd.org - Published by Dennis Barber Journals. Barber Ltd. All rights reserved
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